Light in the Dark World Revised and Improved
by HoldontomySoul
Summary: The trio's seventh year at Hogwarts. Horcruxes, unrequited love, and curses await... Rated T for some language.
1. Author's Note and Intro

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my new and improved version of my very first story that I ever published on this site, Light in the Dark World. This story was originally published on October 20th, 2005. I was in eighth grade at the time, and you can really tell that I was by the rushed nature of the writing. Therefore, I am going to go back and redo the whole story, now that I have more experience, and have found my own style of writing. I went through and re read my story, and it is very rushed, with no real descriptions of scenes or settings, and every chapter starts right with the main action, there's no build up of tension beforehand. It all kind of goes like, "Hey guys, here's a chapter! **OH GOD! DRACO MALFOY HAS A PET DRAGON THAT IS WEARING A TU-TU AND IS GOING TO WOO HERMIONE WITH IT! AND NOW THERE'S RADIOACTIVE SLIME ALL OVER THE PLACE FOR NO APPARENT REASON!**"

I hope you guys enjoy this new version of the story. As a consolation to the people who told me that they loved the original version while I was writing it: NEVER FEAR! I have kept the same plot, the same main action points, and the same character development. I just went through and added more depth to the story. I also might go back and redo the sequel, which never got finished, due to my lack of ideas. I guarantee nothing though, as I will be the first to admit that I cannot write original stories, because I lose interest in my own ideas too quickly.

Okay, so the real point of this Author's note was because I want there to be twenty chapters, and one of the chapters in my original story was about 4 sentences long, so I am just going to combine it with the previous chapter, and that would leave me with nineteen chapters, and I have a thing about odd numbers...I'm weird, I know. Accept it and move on. If you would like to open a new tab in your browser with the original story in it to compare, you can copy and paste this address: .net/s/2627190/1/Light_in_the_Dark_World. Weird. When I went to publish the story, the whole address wouldn't go on. you'll have to just type the first part of this websites address before the .net yourself. Sorry.

I hope you guys enjoy the story!


	2. Confessions

**Light in the Dark World**

Disclaimer: None of the people or places in this story are mine. They all belong to the incredible genius we know as J.K. Rowling.

**Chapter 1**

Confessions

**REASONS I RE-DID THIS CHAPTER:** The original version of this chapter was extremely rushed and sounded...well, it sounded like an eighth-grader wrote it, which is the truth, so there you are. I wanted there to be a little bit more depth to the way that Ron and Hermione actually got together, instead of it being "Girl sees boy. Boy sees girl. Boy and girl get lusty. Smooches ensue." I'm MUCH happier with this chapter than I was with my original.

Hermione Granger lay on her bed at the Burrow, where Ron's family had invited her to stay for summer holiday. In her hands, she held a copy of her favorite nook, Hogwarts: A History. Even though she had read this book a thousand times, and even though she could more than likely recite the entire thing on command, she still loved to retreat into its pages every now and again. Actually, the real reason that she loved this book – or any book, for that matter – was that it gave her a chance to just sit and think. No one dared to disturb Hermione Granger while she was reading. Today was no different. Hermione Granger was indeed thinking. While reading about the awful detention methods used on the miscreants of Hogwarts through the centuries, Hermione Granger was thinking about nothing else but Ronald Weasley. After a while, she decided to put him out of her mind, and tried to focus on the words on the pages in front of her.

"Flogging was a common punishment in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Flogging, by definition, involves being beaten severely, with either a rod or a whip. When the whips were used, there were usually sharp objects attatched to the ends, so as to increase..."

_**Ron's eyes are prettiest shade of blue...I've never seen a man with eyes like his.**_

"...the pain of the victim. Another common method of punishment was to dangle student upside down by their ankles from the ceiling of a room. However, this was deemed to be harmful to the lives of the students in 1607, after the method claimed its 168th victim."

_**He's got a great body, too. All those Quidditch practices really paid off. His shoulders are broad and manly, and whenever, he bends over, the muscles ripple up and down his, back, and his arse is just – DAMMIT!**_

Hermione snapped Hogwarts: A History shut and buried her face into the bedclothes. She knew that Ron would never feel the same way that she did, so why did she continue to torture herself like this? She had secretly been in love with Ronald Weasley ever since his heroic act on the giant chessboard in their first year at Hogwarts. But they were young then. It was only a crush. Now they were 17 years old, and she was almost breathless whenever Ron walked into a room. He was good looking, with his flaming hair that matched his face when he got embarrassed. She found the freckles that dotted his face and every other part of him that she had ever seen – _and probably the ones that she __**hadn't**__ seen as well,_ she thought, blushing furiously – to be absolutely gorgeous. He also made her laugh. There had been moments in the past when she had thought that she maybe had a chance, but they all turned out to just be the hopeful wishes of a schoolgirl. Ron would never be hers. She just needed to accept that fact and try to move on.

Just then, the subject of her thoughts came bounding into the room with two envelopes in his hand.

"School letters!" he announced happily. Harry came into the room a few moments later, looking a little solemn. He'd been like that ever since he and Ginny had split up at the end of the previous year. As she took her letter from Ron, he proceeded to rip his open.

"You two are definitely going to be Head Boy and Girl this year," he commented smugly. Hermione finished carefully opening her letter, and found a shiny new Head Girl's badge inside. Almost simultaneously, Harry pulled his Head Boy's badge out of his envelope with a slight smile. Hermione felt a rush of unbelievable relief. She had been worried, because she knew full well that the choice for Head Boy was between Harry Potter, and Draco Malfoy. She did not want to have to spend all year patrolling with that cretin.

"Congratulations, guys! I can't think of anyone better for the job besides you guys!" Ron said, hugging them both. Hermione felt like Ron held on to her for a little longer than was necessary, but it may have just been her mind playing tricks on her.

Later on that night, Hermione lay in her bed, unable to sleep. Her thoughts kept on returning to Ron, and the hug that he had given her. She knew that she was being irrational, but she couldn't help but wonder about the possibility that maybe...but it was pointless. She was always over-analyzing Ron's actions toward her, trying to make them mean things that they just _didn't_. Thinking that maybe what she needed was a glass of water and some fresh air, Hermione got up and went downstairs. When she got outside, water in hand, she was surprised to find that she was not alone. Ron turned quickly and smiled upon seeing her.

"Hey," he said. God, how was he able to do that. Even with a completely platonic greeting like that, Ron was able to make Hermione feel like the most important and the most special person ever.

"What are you doing out here?" She asked in reply.

"I couldn't sleep, thought I'd get some air," he answered.

"Same here. I can't believe we're going into our last year at Hogwarts," Hermione said.

"I know. It's kind of a happy-sad feeling."

"How do you mean?" Hermione queried.

"Well, I'm sad that it's coming to an end, but I'm really excited for what's going to come after," Ron said, looking at her and smiling. Hermione stared at him. He was so gorgeous, and she was so close to him...him and his perfectly muscled body. The thought made her shiver. Mistaking her physical expression of pleasure for a sign of being cold, Ron put a concerned arm around Hermione's shoulders and drew her in closer to him. She looked up at him, and finally just let herself do what she had wanted to do for years. Raising herself up onto her toes slightly (_good lord, he's tall!_), she brought her mouth to his. It was a light kiss, nothing fancy, just testing the waters. Ron seemed to stand in shock for a moment, and then began to respond gently. Hermione's mind began racing: She was kissing Ron Weasley, and Ron Weasley was kissing her back! As they broke apart, Hermione began grinning stupidly.

"'Mione? Are you alright?" Ron asked.

_**Am I alright? Ronald Weasley just kissed me. I could be on fire right now, and STILL not care.**_

"I'm fine," Hermione managed to get out in her giddy state.

_**Get a hold of yourself girl! Let's not make ourselves look like a complete idiot in front of the object of our affections, shall we?**_

"Good. May I ask, then, why you did that?"

_**Oh, god, he didn't like it!**_

"Because...I like you Ron." She said quietly.

"Huh? No, you like Harry, don't you?" Ron asked.

"Harry? No! He's too much like an older brother to me. I've liked you ever since the end of first year." Hermione admitted.

"Same with me, except I've liked you ever since our first potions lesson. I thought that you knowing everything was really attractive." Ron said, going crimson and studying his shoes.

"Hey, there's nothing to be embarrassed about," Hermione said, lifting Ron's chin up and gazing into his deep blue eyes that she had looked at for so long.

"You know how I feel, so it's not like this huge, dark secret."At that moment, Ron was staring into Hermione's chocolate brown eyes, wondering if it was possible to drown in another person's eyes. Ultimately deciding that the thought was a little bit disturbing, Ron settled on kissing Hermione again. The kiss started out gentle, but then their six years of pent-up emotion kicked in. They were lost in a world of their own.

But somebody else saw them. Ginny Weasley. Ginny, who also was having trouble sleeping, walked outside and saw the two in the middle of their kiss and immediately slipped back inside the house without the love-struck teenagers noticing. She smiled. She was glad that Ron and Hermione had finally figured out their feelings for one another. Ginny sighed.

_**I just wish that Harry would get a clue as well.**_


	3. Malfoy

**Chapter 2**

Malfoy

**REASONS I RE-DID THIS CHAPTER: **Again, it feels very rushed, and not very well put together. I jump from event to event without connecting them in any way. I want to make the action in this story a little bit more progressive, instead of it being just one major event after another. This is the chapter where we first learn about Malfoy's obsession with Hermione, which is basically the biggest point of the whole story. I needed to explain things more, and show things through my words, not just tell the reader what's happening. Also, Malfoy was _totally_ out of character. He was so happy-go-lucky and ridiculously careless in my original that I kind of wanted to gag a little reading it. I wanted to make him a little more cool and suave like Spike from "Buffy".

The remaining weeks of the summer passed quite happily for the trio. They spent their time swimming in the pond together, playing exploding snap with Fred and George, and reminiscing about all the good times they had had at Hogwarts. Before any of them quite knew what had happened, it was September 1st, and they were all boarding the Hogwarts Express for their last year of school. Hermione, Harry and Ron all had to go to the Prefects compartment to get their instructions for the day; Harry and Hermione were supposed to supervise while the prefects went around and made sure that no one was getting into trouble. This all went by smoothly for the three, but there was one person who couldn't help noticing the way that Ron and Hermione were holding hands.

_**This is new.**_

As he watched the happy couple, his silver eyes flashed with frustration. He couldn't stand it anymore. He'd been in love with the Mudblood ever since 3rd year, when she had punched him in the face in retaliation to him making fun of that big oaf, Hagrid. He hated himself because he was a pureblood and she was a Mudblood; He was a Slytherin and she was a Gryffindor. Even so, Draco Malfoy had to do something to get Hermione Granger's attention.

"So, Weasel, you finally snagged the Mudblood," Malfoy drawled as they all left the compartment. He knew it wasn't the most flattering thing to do to get the girl's attention, insulting her heritage, but he didn't know any other way to get her to notice him without it being completely suspicious.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Ron snarled. He always got so defensive whenever the word "Mudblood" was thrown around.

"Hey Weasley, if you're a blood traitor, and she's a Mudblood, will that make your kids 'Mud Traitors'?"

"Off your game today, are you, Malfoy?" Hermione quipped, peeking out from around Ron's larger form. "Not as nasty as normal, I see."

"I like to start the year off easy," Malfoy replied with a smirk.

"Right. Well, bugger off, and go be a wanker somewhere else," Hermione retaliated. After Malfoy left, the rest of the train ride went by quite smoothly. After a few hours, the conductor announced that they would be arriving at Hogwarts soon. At this, the trio changed into their school robes. They arrived at the school, and as they were all getting off the train, someone tapped Hermione on the arm. It was Malfoy.

"What now, Malfoy?" She said, annoyed.

"You dropped this back there," Malfoy said, handing her a small bracelet. It was, indeed, Hermione's; her parents had given it to her when she was young, and Hermione had since put a stretching charm on it, so that it would always fit her without breaking.

"And you are giving it back...why?" Hermione asked, confused. Malfoy was all about making her life miserable, why on earth would he want to give something like this back to her? Malfoy made a few non-verbal sounds and then replied,

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Granger, You dropped it, and I thought you'd miss it. Don't know why I even bothered." He then pushed past her roughly, leaving Hermione very confused. The rest of the evening went by like normal, but Hermione kept on thinking about what Malfoy had done. He never does nice things for anyone, and especially not for her. It was a well-known fact that Malfoy hated Hermione. But if that were true, why did he return something that meant as much to Hermione as her bracelet did? Hermione eventually came to the conclusion that it was a one-time thing. Malfoy had just done something incredibly random and out of character, and it wouldn't happen again. After settling on this logical answer, the incident was eventually almost forgotten. She went to bed that night with nothing on her mind except how wonderful all of the food had tasted.

The next morning, Hermione woke up excited to start her last year of school. She made her way down to the Great Hall, and met Ron at the bottom of the spiral staircase. They walked into the Hall just in time to see the post owls come swooping in. Almost as soon as they had sat down at the Gryffindor table, an owl fluttered down in front of Hermione. Instead of having her Daily Prophet, however, there was only a letter in a plain white envelope. The moment he saw the letter, Ron stood up and announced that he was going to go and see where Harry had wandered off to. Hermione opened the letter and read:

There is a girl within this school;

Who makes me act like a complete fool.

I want to draw her close to me;

And just make her really see.

Hermione, mind sharp as a dart,

It's you I love with all my heart.

Your Secret Admirer

As she read the love letter, she couldn't help smiling. Assuming the note had come from Ron, she decided to write back. That night she wrote on a new piece of parchment;

_**Thank you. I love you, too.**_

_**Hermione**_

Later that evening, as he lay in his bed in the Slytherin dormitory room, Malfoy wondered if Hermione had gotten his note. He knew it was a childish way to go about handling this situation, sending her notes, but he was desperate. He _had _to have her. Would she reply with an answer to his prayers?

His question was answered the next morning when he received Hermione's reply. He read and reread the message, and his heart began to race. He had never gotten the impression that Hermione had any feelings for him other than loathing. He now found himself staring at her from across the Hall, admiring how her lips always had a delicate upward tilt. What he wouldn't give to kiss those lips.

Ron sat next to Hermione. He too was looking at his girlfriend. She had changed so much over the years, but was still as beautiful as the first day that he had met her. There was only one problem with the way that Hermione had changed: everybody else noticed as well. Ron was already very protective of Hermione on principle, but the fact that she was not his girlfriend made it even worse. He noticed the little things now: how boys would tell dumb jokes just to get Hermione to laugh and the way that they would beam afterward, how the sway of Hermione's hips as she walked down the halls of Hogwarts seemed to attract the attention of every other male on the planet. It drove Ron absolutely mad to watch other boys look at Hermione in that way.

_**Speaking of which, what the hell is Draco Malfoy doing?**_

Ron had glanced over at the Slytherin table to see Draco Malfoy, slime and scourge of Hogwarts, ogling Hermione Granger. Blimey, he was practically undressing her with his eyes by the looks of it. Hermione seemed to have noticed this odd behavior as well, and looked severely unsettled by it.

"What's he doing, Hermione?" he asked her.

"I have absolutely no idea," Hermione replied without hesitation.

Hermione had no idea what was going on. Why would Malfoy be staring at her with such fixation? Was he planning something of an unpleasant nature? She decided to put it out of her mind for now, and think about it later, when she had time to go over possibilities. At the staff table, Professor McGonagall stood and announced that for the Halloween feast that year, they would be doing something similar to the Yule Ball. Immediately, Ron whipped around and said,

"Will you go with me?"

Hermione agreed and went back to eating, plans for the ball on her mind.

**Sorry about the ending guys, but I hit a bit of a dead end with rewriting it. I'll try to come up with something a bit later on, and I'll update this. I just wanted to get this out to you guys! Thanks so much to my whole ONE reviewer: hrmac12, you are awesome! WHOO! You win a cyber cookie! I would give you a real cookie, but I'm not sure how much of it would actually make it to you after I was finished trying to stuff it through my computer screen. **** So there it is: that pretty little review button. Come on you know you want to press it. All the cool kids are doing it nowadays.**


	4. The Ball

**Chapter 3**

The Ball

Sorry about the delay guys. I just got a job, and it's been sucking up my entire life...I have now decided that I do not enjoy being an adult very much anyways, here is the next chapter.

**REASONS I RE-DID THIS CHAPTER:** I think one of the biggest reasons is that there wasn't enough action leading up to the main part of the chapter. I just kind of started at the ball with no explanation as to how I got there. There should be at least a little action going on with Malfoy's thoughts and with the interactions between the Trio (I feel bad. In my original story, Ron and Hermione are the main characters, and Harry is just kind of left to cry in his little emo corner by himself). That being said, this chapter was also very rushed. In fact let me make an announcement: ONE REASON WHY I RE-DID ALL OF THE CHAPTERS IN THIS STORY IS BECAUSE THEY WERE VERY RUSHED. There, now I don't have to say it again and again. On to the story!

The weeks passed in a blur of classes, homework, and plans for the ball. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all quite excited to go. Ron and Hermione were going together, and Harry was going by himself; Hermione had suggested that he ask Ginny to accompany him to the dance, but he had declined, saying that he "didn't want to confuse their situation any further than it was." Hermione felt bad for the both of them. It was obvious how much they still loved each other, but she understood why Harry had ended things the year before: if it had been her that Voldemort was after, she would also feel that she had to end things with Ron to keep him safe. Still, it made her heart hurt to see the way that they looked at each other.

Their classes were going smoothly enough; Hermione, unsurprisingly, already held the top grades in the school. The new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher was an interesting person. Professor Smugglerom had come to Hogwarts from Durmstrang, and his training was very clear from the start. He had the students performing jinxes and hexes on a partner on the first day. Hermione, while she didn't necessarily agree with performing harmful curses on her classmates, had to admit that it did make the victim better at defending themselves. Their reflexes improved and they learned how to deflect the curses entirely.

As Halloween came around, everyone began to get very excited. Originally, Hermione had planned on wearing the same dress robes that she had worn to the Yule Ball in fourth year. Ginny, on the other hand, would hear none of this nonsense. She had forced Hermione to sit with her and look through what felt like thousands of magazines and catalogues, both wizard and muggle alike, until they both found the "perfect" dresses to wear. Hermione had to admit, she did quite like the dress that had been her final pick. It was a long and flowing satin dress. The bodice was a light pastel blue with beading sown into it. As the dress flowed down, there were pieces of blue, purple, and green iridescent fabric layered on top of each other, giving the dress an overall multicolored shimmer.

On the night of the ball, Hermione did something that she wouldn't have done unless she was trying to impress. She made her hair straight and shiny with a tiara of braids fastened tightly to her crown. She sat at her mirror then and had a minor panic attack: she had no idea what to do with her makeup. Lavender Brown had done her makeup the night of the Yule Ball, but seeing as Lavender and Ron had split up the year before because the former thought that the latter was fooling around with Hermione, she thought it unlikely that she would be extended this same help now. Luckily, however, Ginny came bounding into the room about a minute after this. After receiving help with her makeup, she put on her dress, shoes, gloves, and jewelry, and headed down to meet Ron in the common room.

Ron was pacing in front of the entrance to the girls dormitories' staircase agitatedly. He was so nervous. This would, after all, be his and Hermione's first official "date." Sure, they had gone on picnics with Harry and Ginny over summer holiday, and had spent a day at the lake before returning to school, but this was different. He didn't know what to do, how to walk, what to say...

"Ron?" came a soft voice from behind him, and he whipped around. When he saw her, the issue became less about what to say, and became more about remember how to talk at all. He had almost been a little worried that he wouldn't know it was her at all, but she looked like Hermione...just a really fancy, daydream-like, not-like-Hermione-at-all Hermione. Obviously she had attracted some other stares, too. Dean Thomas looked enchanted. After a second, in which Ron struggled to recall how form words, he said,

"Shall we go, then?"

"We shall," Hermione replied, flashing him a smile. She liked how she made him so nervous. Hermione took Ron's arm and they walked out of the portrait hole together. When they walked down to the Great Hall, there were the usual decorations, plus a few new things. Instead of the long house tables, there were the same circular tables that had been used for the Yule Ball. A large area in the middle of the Hall had been cleared away, and there was an empty stage at the front of it. Many people filled the Hall, with everyone ogling everyone else's robes and dresses. Many people looked amazed as Hermione went past, no one quite believing that she was the same bushy-haired bookworm of a Head Girl that they knew in everyday life. However, there was one person that couldn't take his eyes off of her. Malfoy was staring from across the room, even as he sat with Pansy Parkinson. Parkinson was hopelessly devoted to Malfoy, but he hated it. Pansy was a pretty girl, he supposed, but she was shallow and slaggy as hell. Malfoy watched as Hermione and her Weasel friend walked over to the Golden Boy and talked for a minute. After a while, everyone began to dance, and then Hermione made a motion as if to say she needed to go outside for a minute, and left the dance floor, while the Weasley boy went over to the drinks table.

_**Alone at last.**_

Meanwhile, Hermione was standing out in the fresh night air. The night had been lovely so far. She was having a really great time. Now she was waiting for Ron to come and bring her a drink. Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her.

"Hermione?" It was Malfoy.

_**Great. Just what I need.**_

__"Malfoy," she replied coldly.

"No need to be so short with me Hermione, I was only wishing you a good evening," He said back smoothly. Hermione was starting to feel very uncomfortable about all of this. First he was giving her back her bracelet, then her was practically imagining her naked in front of God and everyone in the Great Hall, and now he's wishing her a "good evening?"And there was one other thing that was different too.

"Since when have you started calling me by my first name, Ferret?" She shot at him. Malfoy, who had walked up next to where she was standing looking out over the grounds, said

"I think that, ever since our little correspondence," he brushed his fingers up her arm lightly, "calling each other by our first names would be necessary."

"In what demented world did we ever have a 'correspondence', and since when is it suddenly okay for you to touch me?" Hermione asked angrily, jerking away from Malfoy's hand. He made up for this by stepping a bit closer to her.

"The note I sent you? Remember in your reply you said you loved me?" Malfoy stepped a little closer to her, a malicious gleam in his eyes. With a sudden shock of realization, Hermione remembered the poem she had received a few weeks earlier. Malfoy continued to step closer to her.

"That was from you? I thought your note was from Ron!"

"Doesn't matter!" Malfoy grabbed Hermione around the waist and leaned in for a kiss when...

_**Smack!**_

Hermione had smacked Malfoy so hard across the face, he actually went cross-eyed.

"If you ever touch me again, I'll hex you!" Hermione threatened.

Malfoy looked up with anger shining in every part of his face, but Hermione had already stalked away back into the Great Hall. She had taken barely ten steps when she ran into  
Harry and Ron. She explained to them what had just transpired outside, and then had to help Harry in preventing Ron from going outside and "killing the fucking ferret bastard." After they had subdued Ron a little, the two turned back to Hermione.

"Are you okay?" Ron said, putting his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders.

"Apart from being extremely disturbed? Yes, I'm okay."

"What did you do?" Harry said.

"I smacked him. Again." Hermione said conversationally. Ron guffawed.

"That's my girl. Wish I'd have been there," he said enthusiastically.

Malfoy stormed back into the Slytherin Common Room. He had been so close. _**So Close!**_ Hermione's note had not been meant for him. He went up to his dormitory and began pacing to room, deep in thought.

_**What am I going to do? She knows I love her now. I have to make her love me, or I'll never get her.**_

He finally settled on the perfect conclusion...

So there you are: another chapter done. Whew! As a side note, I would really appreciate it if you guys would review. Come on, it takes three seconds to type the words "I like this story." I just want to hear SOMETHING from you guys. I write this stuff for you, and want to know what you think of it. So please, please, PLEASE review. Thanks! See you guys next chapter!


	5. The Attack

I'm SOOOO very sorry for not updating sooner. There were two reasons for the delay: 1) I just started college, so I've been busy getting adjusted and whatnot; 2) I have had TERRIBLE writer's block. But , NEVER FEAR! I just got an idea for this chapter yesterday, and am determined to write it down before it goes away! So here we are!

REASONS I RE-DID THIS CHAPTER: I think that, even though Malfoy showed Hermione how he felt about her in the previous chapter, he still has that evil "I'm the pure-blood spawn of two Death Eaters" mindset.

Chapter 4

The Attack

In the weeks following the Ball, Hermione had formed a habit of avoiding seeing or speaking to Malfoy at all. When she saw him in the corridor between classes, she would duck into the nearest bathroom or hidden passageway. The prospect of seeing him after what had happened was terrifyingly awkward. What do you say to someone that you had thought hated you for the past seven years after said person practically throws themselves at you?

_**Maybe he was drunk.**_ Her subconscious would say.

_**If so, he hid it pretty damn well. **_ Her normal thought would reply. Hermone was pretty sure that Malfoy had not been drunk. There hadn't been any trace of the smell of alcohol on him. He had been totally in control. Every time she thought about the way that he had looked at her, Hermione felt a strong urge to shower. His stare had made her feel like he could see right through her clothes, which was not a pleasant feeling. Other than this situation, however, school was perfectly normal. Hermione already had top grades in every class, and Harry and Ron slacked, but did well, considering.

Unfortunately, life has a tendency to throw curveballs at the world, turning normalcy into nightmares.

Almost a month after the Ball, Hermione went to eat breakfast in the Great Hall, as usual. While looking for Harry and Ron, she didn't notice the whispers that followed her through the room.

"That's her. She's the one from the Prophet."

"Poor girl. Wonder if she knows yet."

Finally, Hermione was able to make out Ron's distinctive red hair and made her way over to her two friends. When she reached them, she instantly knew by the pained looks on their faces that something was wrong. Before she should say anything, though, there was a hand on her shoulder.

"Miss Granger?" Hermione turned to face Professor McGonnagall, who wore the gravest of expressions.

"I need you to come with me," McGonnagall said. The two walked to the Professor's office, the whispers again following Hermione. As soon as the door shut behind them, Hermione asked,

"What's going on, Professor?"

"Please sit, Miss Granger," the elder woman replied. This was all starting to make Hermione feel extremely worried. She took a seat in front of the desk. The Professor walked around and sat across from her and folded her hands. There was a long silence, like the silence before the storm.

"Miss Granger, I'm afraid that I am the bearer of some very bad news," McGonnagall paused, contemplating how to say what she knew she had to say. Hermione's heart rate began to quicken.

"Last night, the Death Eaters attacked your family to send a message that H-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will not hesitate to hurt the people closest to Harry Potter." In numb disbelief, Hermione's eyes began to tear, and in desperation her asked,

"Are they okay?" McGonnagall sighed. This would be difficult.

"I'm sorry, but no. Both of your parents were killed during the attack." Hermione's heart stopped, and tears began to fall from her eyes.

"And Emma?" Her little sister, Emma, with bouncy brown curls and no front teeth, was six years old.

_**Please, let her have been spending the night at a friend's. Please.**_

"She also perished. I am so sorry, Hermione. There was a Prophet article out this morning," The Professor slid a copy of the newspaper to Hermione. Through her tears, Hermione could just make out a large headline above three stationary Muggle photographs.

"I need to go," she said, grief-stricken. Before she had shut the door to the office, Professor McGonnagall called,

"Hermione, I am so sorry for your loss, and I promise you that the Order will do everything in its power to make sure justice is served." All Hermione could do was nod, causing more tears to run down her face. When the door had shut, she began to run. To where, she didn't know. All she knew was that she had to keep running, and maybe if she went far enough, she wouldn't feel this pain anymore. She turned a corner and slammed full-speed into Malfoy.

"What the hell?" Malfoy exclaimed, and then he saw that it was Hermione who had sent him flying across the hall.

"I heard about the attack, Hermione, and I just wanted to say that I'm s-,"

"Don't say you're sorry, Malfoy! I don't need to hear that from you!" Hermione interrupted savagely.

"Well, I'm still sorry. I didn't know that you had a little sister, What was her name? Emma?"

"STOP! Stop it! You do NOT get to say her name! Your parents were probably involved in this attack!" Hermione yelled.

"Well maybe they were! What difference does that make?" Malfoy retorted.

"What difference doe it make? Your parents were probably involved with an attack that ended in the deaths of the three people that mean everything to me, and you want to know what difference that makes?" Hermione shot back, tears dripping off of her face.

"Look, I didn't mean-," Malfoy started.

"SHUT UP!" Hermione shrieked. Just before she ran away, she mustered all of the strength she had left in her and punched Malfoy as hard as she could right in the nose.

Up in the Common Room, Harry and Ron had been waiting for Hermione for almost a half hour when she rushed through the portrait hole sobbing angrily. She headed straight for the comfort of Ron's arms and began sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder.

"Hush, love, hush now. It's going to be okay," Ron said, stroking her hair.

Harry swore to himself that he would make Voldemort pay for this if it was the last thing he ever did.

**Wow. So that really, really sucked a whole lot of monkey balls. Maybe I'll do better on a less emotional chapter. Hopefully.**


	6. Quidditch

**Holy. Crap. College is HARD. I don't like this whole "being a grown-up" thing. It's not very much fun at ALL. Anyways, I apologize for my delay in updates. I would like to believe that it can be chalked up to me not getting any feedback from my readers, but alas, I cannot. This is all because I have procrastinated. Silly me. And, as I said at the beginning of the original chapter, I know that JKR has already stated that Hermione is awful at Quidditch, but this is fanfiction, I can make her characters do whatever the hell I want them to do! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! **

**REASONS I RE-DID THIS CHAPTER: **I feel like I wrote the characters a little out of themselves, if that makes any sense. It just doesn't seem very…I don't know where the hell that sentence is going. The quidditch scene was just….just terrible. I remember someone telling me at the time that it just wasn't very descriptive. Holy Batman, were they right. Also, I had to go back and read through my story so far to see where we are chronologically speaking. I always put things like "Two weeks later…" and I just wanted to make sure I don't do it too much so that it's like chapter seven and I'm like, "Oh. Btw, it's now April two years after the story started…. Yay…" Okay, let's start the chapter.

Aaaaaannnnnnnd…..Action!

Chapter 5

Quidditch

In the days that followed the death of Hermione's family, a sort of quiet seemed to come over the students of Hogwarts whenever she passed them by. Hermione felt like she now knew what it was like to be Harry, because whispers now followed her everywhere she went. Her normal habits had been abandoned in her grief; she no longer was the first to class, often forgot to complete homework assignments, and stopped raising her hand in class, leaving teachers and students alike absolutely bewildered. The stress and anxiety from all of this put together had her bursting into tears at the drop of a hat, and she was short-tempered with everyone, including Ron and Harry.

A week after the attack. Quidditch tryouts were being held, and, much to the amusement of Harry and Ron, Hermione decided to try out just for the heck of it. So naturally, she read up on the subject, being the bookworm that she was. She had asked Ron to teach her how to fly, which had only ended in disaster and hilarity until Harry decided to step in and help out. Hermione really wanted to try out for beater. Chaser sounded nice too, but right now, all she really wanted to do was hit something.

The afternoon of the tryouts, Hermione went down to the Quidditch field with Ron, who would be lending Hermione his Cleansweep 11, because none of the school brooms were any good whatsoever. There were at least 25 other people there. Every single one of the people trying out for beater were big, muscular boys except Hermione, who looked like a miniature poodle in comparison. After a few minutes of standing about, Harry strode out of the locker room in his Gryffindor robes, his Captain's badge securely in place.

"Okay, beaters go here, chasers go there, keepers, go there." Harry said, pointing to various parts of the field.

"Beaters will go first." Hermione mounted Ron's broom and shot into the sky. Before she learned to fly, Hermione had never been able to understand why the two men in her life had been so obsessed with it. Now she knew. It was a wonderful feeling, like being carried in a swimming pool. She felt weightless. However, no amount of wonderful, flight-induced weightlessness can help you while trying avoid a horrible death by a bludger. Hermione failed spectacularly at beating, although it did relieve a lot of her stress. Once on the ground, she handed the Cleansweep 11 back to Ron and watched him try for Keeper. Ron's tryout went beautifully, he blocked all five shots, and returned to the ground to a rousing chorus of "Weasly Is Our King."

Hermione got on the broom again to try for chaser nto expecting much. However, chasing was altogether easier than she could have ever imagined. She scored 5 goals and dodged both bludgers twice. She made the team, as did Ginny and one of the chasers from the previous year, Demelza Robbins. Practices began the following night and a week later, the first match of the year took place. In that time, Hermione ordered a Firebolt from Diagon Alley, and the team's nightly left her with little time to sit and feel sorry for herself, which forced her to do her homework. She began to become her normal self again.

The morning of the match, Hermione ate little for breakfast and headed down to the locker room with Harry, Ron, and Ginny to change into their Quidditch robes.

"Alright, everyone. Those of you who don't know yet, we're playing Slytherin, and they have two very good beaters, so we need to be careful," Harry said as he stood up and faced his team. They all grabbed their brooms and headed out onto the field. As they did so, an equal amount of boos and cheers erupted from the stands. On the opposite end of the field, the Slytherin Quidditch team stepped out of their locker room in their green and silver robes. Malfoy headed the group, Captain's badge shining in the morning sun.

"Captains, shake hands," Madame Hooch said. Harry stepped forward and was met by Malfoy. After a few moments of attemoted finger breaking, they stepped back to their teams and mounted their brooms.

"Mount your brooms!" Madam Hooch called. Seconds later, the whistle blew shrilly, and 14 brooms shot into the sky.

"And it's the new chaser, Hermione Granger with the Quaffle, I've heard she's quite good," Ernie McMillan was doing the commentary on the match.

"Granger with the Quaffle, passes it to Weasly, back to Granger, passes to Robinns, back to Granger and she shoots at the goal posts and… SHE SCORES!" the crowd below burst into cheers and groans at the same time. Hermione flew across the Gryffindor end of the stadium doing a sort of mid-air victory dance. She paid for this a second later when a bludger zoomed by so close to her head that it caught the ends of her hair.

_Stop getting an ego, Hermione, and play the damn game. _She thought to herself. The rest of the match went very smoothly, with the snitch caught fantastically by Harry and the final score being 220- 80. Hermione made 2 goals, Ginny made 3, and Demelza also made 2. It was the first time that Hermione had really felt truly happy since the death of her parents and sister.

One night as Hermione patrolled the corridors, she decided to go sit on top of the Astronomy Tower and stargaze. As she sat there, someone behind her said,

"What are you doing up here?" Hermione jumped and turned around to see who it was that had spoken. It was Malfoy.

"What do you want?" she said icily, turning back to look over the grounds.

"I've been wanting to apologize for what I said the day you found out about your parents. I didn't mean to-," Malfoy started.

"You have, have you? Well, don't bother!" Hermione interjected, getting up and walking past him. Malfoy grabbed her arm and spun her around.

"Look at me Hermione." And, for some reason, she instantly obeyed. His silver eyes locked onto hers. Malfoy put one of his hands on each of her shoulders and dipped his head lower for a kiss. Disgusted Hermione stepped back.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She took a few more steps back.

"We can't be together!" and with that, she turned and walked away into the castle.

_**Oh, we'll be together, Hermione, **_Malfoy thought as he looked at her retreating back.

_**You'll see.**_

Alright, well there it is. Honestly, I didn't give myself a whole lot to work with. Either that, or I'm just not doing a very good job. Either way, review and tell me what you think. I love me some feedback. Until next time then, dear readers!


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